If you cheat, money will follow

After listening to the introduction from the person in charge of the equipment company, Chang Le had a rough idea.

他 说:

"Everyone, I am a layman, but after listening to your introduction, I know that EUV is very difficult and demanding."

"It cannot be broken in a short time. It requires more time to accumulate and explore than DUV lithography machines."

"This is acceptable. After all, we have accumulated too many debts and we have to pay them back."

"However, no matter how difficult the road is, you still have to walk; no matter how high the mountain is, you still have to climb."

"On the semiconductor road, we will not have any external help, only more technical resistance."

"I hope that all of you here will not slack off, never stop, and never waver..."

"Continue to maintain a high-spirited ideological focus, maintain a spirit of cooperation and assistance, persevere and continue to work hard to win this crown jewel."

"On behalf of Leda Investment, I would like to express my opinion that as long as you have technological breakthroughs, there will definitely be no shortage of funds."

There was applause.

End of the meeting.

Chang Le and Liang Qingsong did not stay at Smee for dinner, but went to Huahong Semiconductor.

On the way, Chang Le asked Liang Qingsong:

"Mr. Liang, is there any way to bypass the EUV lithography machine in the short term?"

"Avoid it?" Liang Qingsong thought for a moment, shook his head regretfully and said:

"As far as I know, there is currently no new theoretical system in the academic community. If you want to develop deeply in the semiconductor industry, you must have an EUV lithography machine."

"Hey..." Chang Le sighed.

The lithography machine is not as good as the material, regardless of the objective lens or light source. What is required is not trial and error, but the accumulation of time and experience.

"Boss, even if there is another technical route, I think the difficulty of research and development will not be less than that of EUV lithography machine." Liang Qingsong said:

"After all, there are already successful examples of EUV, while others are still in no man's land."

"I understand what you are saying, but do you think a photolithography factory is possible?" Chang Le asked.

"Photolithography factory?" Liang Qingsong didn't understand.

"It uses particle accelerators to achieve stable light sources..." Chang Le explained.

"Oh...Boss, do you also know about steady-state micro-bunching?" Liang Qingsong understood.

The theoretical basis of the lithography factory is steady-state micro-bunching.

High-power, narrow-bandwidth radiation is obtained through particle accelerators.

The wavelength of these radiated lights can cover the terahertz to extreme ultraviolet bands, that is, full coverage.

"Haha, how did I know about steady-state micro-bunching? The researchers at the institute casually talked about it while eating." Chang Le shook his head and smiled.

"That's right. I have learned about this concept before. My personal opinion is that it is theoretically feasible..." Liang Qingsong said:

"But there are still problems that need to be overcome to move from theory to practice, and the time it takes will not be shorter than EUV lithography machines."

"However, if research and development can continue, it can be regarded as a higher-level industrial production method."

In short, it is beautiful in theory but cruel in practice.

"Can semiconductor chips only be based on silicon?" Chang Le asked again.

"No, carbon-based chips are a very good new direction." Liang Qingsong said.

Carbon-based chips are chips made of carbon nanotubes, graphene and other materials.

There is already a consensus in the academic community.

Theoretically, the electron migration performance of carbon-based chips is 1000 times that of silicon-based chips.

It has higher transmission efficiency, lower cost and lower power consumption.

"Carbon-based chips are very likely to replace silicon-based chips." Liang Qingsong explained:

"According to theoretical estimates, the limit of silicon-based chips is 1 nanometer."

"Further down, quantum tunneling occurs, causing what is commonly known as Moore's Law to fail."

The quantum tunneling effect means that electrons run around out of control and the chip fails.

"In terms of architecture, there will also be a von Neumann memory wall phenomenon."

The memory wall means that the memory cannot keep up with the rhythm of the chip, turning into a wall and dragging down the chip performance.

"So now many research institutions have turned their attention to carbon-based chips."

"From the material itself, carbon-based materials have more potential than silicon-based materials. They have lower limits, better performance and lower power consumption."

"The performance of carbon-based chips with 90 nanometer technology is basically equivalent to silicon-based chips;"

"The carbon-based chips using the 28nm process are equivalent to or even surpass the silicon-based chips using the 7nm process..."

"So, from a constant process perspective, carbon-based chips are indeed less dependent on photolithography machines."

"But..." Liang Qingsong changed the subject:

"Once carbon-based chips enter smaller process nodes, such as 7 nanometers and 5 nanometers, the accuracy requirements for photolithography machines will be higher, because carbon-based wafers are much smaller than silicon-based wafers."

“Moreover, the difficulty of purifying carbon nanotubes is much greater than that of silicon.”

"Only wafers with a purity of more than six nines can be used for chip manufacturing."

6 nines, or 9.%.

"At present, only some laboratories have used carbon nanotubes to make some medium-scale integrated circuits, and they are still far away from chip-level ultra-large-scale integrated circuits."

"Teach me something. I naively thought I could bypass EUV." Chang Le said sincerely:

"But listening to what you say, there is still no shortcut. No matter which direction you choose, EUV cannot be avoided." Chang Le said with a smile.

"Yes. But, boss, I think our research and development speed is already very fast. We have completed the 40-year development process of European and American countries in eight years..." Liang Qingsong nodded and said:

"In terms of pure equipment, our equipment is basically on the same level as Asml's equipment."

"Although they have successfully developed an EUV lithography machine, it will take time to commercialize it."

"To tell you the truth, when I first came to Huahong Semiconductor, I saw the dilapidated production equipment and weak technical foundation. I almost didn't want to work..."

"Haha, the road ahead is long but the progress is coming. There will come a day when we can catch up or even take the lead." Chang Le said.

"I think so too. Thanks to the cultivation of large funds, the domestic semiconductor industry is now different from what it was eight years ago. This hurdle will definitely be overcome." Liang Qingsong said with certainty.

The two came to Huahong Semiconductor while chatting.

It was already meal time, Chang Le followed Liang Qingsong to the canteen.

Along the way, I saw young and energetic R&D engineers.

These R&D engineers have smiles on their faces and light in their eyes, shining with hope for future life.

Liang Qingsong explained: “The company has recently recruited several batches of college students and graduate students, so there are many young people.”

Chang Le said: "Young people are so good. Only in this way can the company have atmosphere, passion and stamina. How is the treatment?"

Liang Qingsong smiled and said: "It is above the first-tier level at home, and it is also top-tier abroad, no matter how you look at it."

Chang Le nodded: "Well, Leda companies must keep two benchmarks, one is research and development, and the other is treatment."

Liang Qingsong said: "Boss, don't worry. With the financial support of the parent company, our R&D revenue has reached 40%, ranking first in the world. It's just controlled internally by our senior management."

In the eyes of outsiders, Huahong Semiconductor is the leading player in the industry's specialty craftsmanship and has multiple world-first titles.

For example, the world’s largest smart IC manufacturing foundry;

The largest MCU manufacturing foundry enterprise in China (automotive control chip);

The only company in the world with OEM capabilities for both 8-inch and 12-inch power devices;

In the field of mature manufacturing processes, its market share occupies half of the country.

Don't underestimate the mature process. Although the profit is thin, the demand is huge.

Moreover, mature processes are more cost-effective, low-cost, and have a wide range of application scenarios.

Now let’s add one more, the semiconductor company with the highest R&D ratio in the world.

Almost to the point of madness.